King Fahd (or Crown Prince Abdullah. Take your freakin' pick.) may hold the very impressive sounding job title of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, but he's also your friendly Saudi Arabian telephone company owner as well.
And they don't want Saudi citizens texting in votes for a reality show, ala American Idol. Instead of doing the reasonable thing and simply voicing an opinion against this sort of behavior, what did they do instead?
{...}"We feel the program does not match the values of the Saudi culture," said spokesman Saad Dhafer. "Our social and economic market research shows that our customers want us to operate in line with these values."
I know. With all that malarkey about morals and values you'd think this move was about the reality show, but in actuality it's about text messaging. Because...
{...}But Dhafer added viewers in the kingdom were still be able to vote using a regular land line.{...}
Hmmm. I wonder how much a call to the land line costs? Is it a toll-free line? Or is there a charge? I'll bet you anything there's a charge for that call.
Anyone know?
If true, well, what does that tell you about what's really important to the House of Saud? Morals or money?
Posted by Kathy at January 11, 2005 02:26 PMYou know, with every passing year I begin to think less and less of these folks. And that is really something, because I didn't have a lot of respect for them to begin with.
The way I see it this demonstrates many of the same things that are wrong with the Middle East. First, some jerk making pronouncements for the moral betterment of the people. Second, arbitrary decisions that seem to fly in the face of moving forward. Almost as though the mere thought of change is frightening. How will there ever be peace in the Middle East if these people can't move forward with something stupid like text messaging? Peace seems like a vastly more scary enterprise for this group that text messaging. Think of it! Furthermore, I am no longer convinced that these pampered folk would ever amount to anything if not for all of that bubbling crude. Could they have a winning enterprise in a real free market that they didn't have control of every aspect of?
I think they are crappy businessmen...and dare I say it, icky poopy heads.
Posted by: Phoenix at January 12, 2005 08:25 AM